·
Nevada is the most mountainous state in the
country. There are hundreds of mountain ranges, I think the number we saw was
348 – or something like that. Most of these mountain ranges are oriented north
to south and make travel east to west (or vice versa) quite challenging.
·
Nevada has more public land than any other state
in the country. Approximately 94% of the state is some kind of public land,
mostly BLM, but also national forest, national park, and state and local public
lands.
·
There are only three population areas in Nevada.
One around Las Vegas in the south and by far the largest. Northwest Nevada
around Reno and Carson City. And a small population center in the northeastern
part of the state near Salt Lake City and the town of Elko, Nevada. The rest of
the state is pretty darn empty, dry, and mountainous.
·
Nevada became a state during the Civil War, in
the year 1864, this year being the 150th anniversary of the state. This is notable
because founders of the state were very pro-Union and wrote into the Nevada
state constitution that Nevada would always defer to the will of the United
States government. (This is notable in the Cliven Bundy story who stated that
he only followed Nevada laws – I guess among other problems, he doesn’t know
his own state’s history.)
·
The first settlement in Nevada was a Mormon
trading post called Mormon Station. Mormon Station was a trading post at the
base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains just south of the current location of
Carson City that was started to sell goods to travelers heading to California during
the 1840’s gold rush. Mormon Station later was abandoned by the Mormon settlers
and eventually became the first town in Nevada called Genoa. (By the way, Mark
Twain started his newspaper career in the very town before moving to the larger
town of Virginia City Nevada which was the location of the Comstock Lode silver
strike.)
·
Reno has a major image problem. (This may sound
familiar to RI’ers.) We read and heard many stories of Renoites (or whatever
they call themselves) struggling with the negative image they and others had of
their city as a second rate gambling town. They are working on reinventing
themselves, but are still at the early stages of this process.
·
Nevadans have a thing for dogs. They expect to
take their dogs everywhere with them, stores, parks, trails, public buildings,
etc. Not being dog people, this took some getting used to. A such, it is not
surprising when you enter places in border towns of California that there are
reminder signs for the Nevadans that they must control their dog-tendencies and
leave their pets behind out of their own state.
·
The Sierra Nevada Mountains have been and are a
major barrier to east-west movement. They were historically – you can read lots
of stories of the wagon trains and gold rush people struggling with how to get
over these mountains. They would plan their whole journey to arrive at a time
when one could get over and down safely, and history has many stories of people
who misjudged that calculation. Still today, getting over the mountains is an
impediment and you really need to decide to you want to go across the 10,000
foot mountains to get anywhere in California.
·
Nevadans, like many people we met in the west,
have a strong ethos of leave me alone, I can do what I want, where I want, when
I want, how I want. We guess it kind of goes along with the land, open spaces,
and spirit of I am on my own!
·
Fire, meaning wildfires, is a way of life out
here. Not only Nevada, but California, Oregon, Washington, and other states in
this part of the world. Local news has regular segments on current fires,
staying safe from fires, and weather conditions that may create fires. We never
saw a major fire, but there were several smaller ones in the Reno area during
our time here.
There’s lots more we could add,
but we hope this offers a glimpse into some of the things we learned about the
state of Nevada during our time here in the summer of 2014. We’re glad we are
moving on, but as always happy for what we gained from our time in Nevada.
